BEST CASSETTE RELEASES (2009)

Not Not Fun

Eagle Rock's Not Not Fun label has a history of cassette releases whose physical descriptions are enough to rival the DIY-spirited music contained therein. For instance, from an early Wigwam/Tent City split: "Housed in stenciled sandpaper covers with runic colored-sand emblazoned cases, and twine-banded with totem beads and feathers;" or from the 2005 Abe Vigoda–featuring, nautically themed comp, Sea & Sea Music Factory: "Each ocean-blue tape comes housed in a jellyfish-stamped burlap bag bedecked with a scavenged seashell." Musically speaking, NNF — owned and operated by Pocahaunted's Amanda and Britt Brown — specializes in skuzzy funk-soul and psych-punk, a genre-warped mishmash that only sounds better the more worn-out and faded a tape gets. Which is to say, this is music made to be played on secondhand tape decks through small, unreliable speakers. The Browns have stepped up their means of production over the years, now using colored cassettes and printed labels more than spray paint and stencils, but all that really means is that they've committed completely to the esoteric medium and the portable, analog aesthetic it implies. Much of the J-card art (that's the name for those tape-tray inserts) is done by Amanda herself, and releases are typically limited to 100 copies. notnotfun.com.